Anruwa reportedly said that Israel has prohibited the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency from providing aid in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine is highest.
“Despite the tragedy unfolding on our watch, Israeli authorities have informed the UN that they will no longer approve @Unrwa food convoys to the north,” Philippe Lazzarini said in X .
“This is outrageous and amounts to a deliberate sabotage of life-saving efforts during a man-made famine.”
Israel did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on Lazzarini’s comments on Sunday. Unrwa spokeswoman Juliet Touma said the decision was conveyed at a meeting with Israeli military officials on Sunday. This follows last week’s two written refusals to allow convoy deliveries to the north.
According to Toma, the reasons for the decision were not disclosed.
The Gaza Strip faces a dire humanitarian situation as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas, which began nearly six months ago in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Last week, a UN-backed food security assessment warned that famine is expected to hit northern Gaza by May without urgent intervention. Touma said Unruwa has not been able to deliver food to the north since January 29.
Thoma said “the latest decision is another nail in the coffin” for efforts to get much-needed aid to war-torn Gazans.
Martin Griffiths, director of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office, told Sunday’s X broadcast that Unruwa is the “heartbeat of humanitarian work in Gaza.”
He added: “The decision to block food convoys to the north will only bring thousands closer to starvation. It must be reversed.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said blocking aid to Unruwa was “denying the ability of hungry people to survive”.
Earlier on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for an end to the “unstoppable nightmare” endured by 2.4 million Gazans in the worst war in the strip’s history.
Israel has accused Unruwa officials of taking part in the October 7 attack and called the agency a “front for Hamas.”
Touma said Israeli authorities on Sunday also rejected a UN request to send a team “to evacuate the wounded” to al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, where fighting has raged for almost a week.
The October 7 attack killed about 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an Israeli tally by AFP.
Israeli military operations aimed at eliminating Hamas have killed at least 32,226 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled areas.
